I love to swim — but I would never, ever, buy a house with a pool, particularly an outdoor one. Oh sure, they’re convenient, they look pretty, and almost nothing gets people to your house faster than the word “pool party.” (Nothing legal, that is.) But let’s look at the down sides, most of which have big dollar signs attached to them:

Injuries and lawsuits. Ask anyone who’s been to law school. (By now, almost everyone has.) An inordinate number of tort cases have to do with things like children drowning after sneaking into a pool, divers bashing their head, swimmers getting caught in the drain, and so on. (Have you noticed how hotel pools no longer have diving boards? There’s a one-word reason for that: “liability.”) Some lawyers even specialize in swimming-pool injury cases. Apart from the horror of someone injuring themselves or dying on your property, lawsuits are expensive . . . which brings us to the next topic.

Paying more for homeowners’ insurance — if you can get pool coverage. As soon as your insurance company knows you have a pool, it will either raise your rates for liability coverage or exclude the pool from your policy altogether. No coverage means you’re on your own if someone sues you for injuries. Just how much your rates go up depends on where you live and other factors — some say around 10% per year — but it’s not the only cost you’re going to face. That brings us to the next topic.

Adding safety features. If you’re going to avoid those injuries, or at least show that you weren’t at fault in causing them, you’re probably going to need to build a high fence with a lock on it, and otherwise secure the pool from unintended visitors — and make it as safe as possible for the intended ones.

Increased energy use. According to a study by Opower, homes with pools tend to use 49% more electricity and 19% more natural gas per year than non-pool homes, owing in large part to the pumping, filtering, and heating requirements.

Maintenance costs. There are the basic chemicals, plus cleaning and inevitable repairs — all of which can easily add up to $3,000 per year, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

When you get tired of your pool-party house and want to sell, the presence of a pool may be attractive to some buyers — but turn off others. Especially, I’m guessing, the lawyers.

About Ilona Bray

The blog is written by Ilona Bray, a Nolo editor and co-author of Nolo's Essential Guide to Buying Your First Home. Ilona Bray is a former attorney, now author and editor at Nolo. She has co-authored many popular Nolo real estate titles, including Selling a House in a Tough Market and First-Time Landlord. In her spare time, she enjoys walking the hidden paths in her neighborhood and visiting weekend open houses.